::THE SAYINGS OF SWAMI VIVEKANANDA::
“Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life - think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success, that is way great spiritual giants are produced.”
You cannot believe in God until you believe in yourself.
When we really begin to live in the world, then we understand what is meant by brotherhood or mankind, and not before.
“We are responsible for what we are, and whatever we wish ourselves to be, we have the power to make ourselves. If what we are now has been the result of our own past actions, it certainly follows that whatever we wish to be in future can be produced by our present actions; so we have to know how to act.”
“Never think there is anything impossible for the soul. It is the greatest heresy to think so. If there is sin, this is the only sin ? to say that you are weak, or others are weak.”
“You have to grow from the inside out. None can teach you, none can make you spiritual. There is no other teacher but your own soul.”
“The goal of mankind is knowledge ... Now this knowledge is inherent in man. No knowledge comes from outside: it is all inside. What we say a man 'knows', should, in strict psychological language, be what he 'discovers' or 'unveils'; what man 'learns' is really what he discovers by taking the cover off his own soul, which is a mine of infinite knowledge.”
“We are what our thoughts have made us; so take care about what you think. Words are secondary. Thoughts live; they travel far.”
“Where can we go to find God if we cannot see Him in our own hearts and in every living being.”
“You cannot believe in God until you believe in yourself.”
External nature is only internal nature writ large.
“The first sign of your becoming religious is that you are becoming cheerful”
“The world is the great gymnasium where we come to make ourselves strong.”
In one word, this ideal is that you are divine.”
“The Vedanta recognizes no sin it only recognizes error. And the greatest error, says the Vedanta is to say that you are weak, that you are a sinner, a miserable creature, and that you have no power and you cannot do this and that.”
“The more we come out and do good to others, the more our hearts will be purified, and God will be in them.”
“All the powers in the universe are already ours. It is we who have put our hands before our eyes and cry that it is dark.”
“GOD of truth, be Thou alone my guide…”
“If you think about disaster, you will get it. Brood about death and you hasten your demise. Think positively and masterfully, with confidence and faith, and life becomes more secure, more fraught with action, richer in achievement and experience.”
“The greatest religion is to be true to your own nature. Have faith in yourselves!”
“YOU know, I may have to be born again, you see, I have fallen in love with mankind.”
“BY the study of different RELIGIONS we find that in essence they are one.”
“Our duty is to encourage every one in his struggle to live up to his own highest idea, and strive at the same time to make the ideal as near as possible to the Truth.”
The world is the great gymnasium where we come to make ourselves strong.
Feel like Buddha and you will be a Buddha; feel like Christ and you will be a Christ. It is feeling that is the life, the strength, the vitality, without which no amount of intellectual activity can reach God.
The will is not free - it is a phenomenon bound by cause and effect - but there is something behind the will which is free.
The more we come out and do good to others, the more our hearts will be purified, and God will be in them.
There is nothing beyond God, and the sense enjoyments are simply something through which we are passing now in the hope of getting better things.
The moment I have realized God sitting in the temple of every human body, the moment I stand in reverence before every human being and see God in him -- that moment I am free from bondage, everything that binds vanishes, and I am free.
Our duty is to encourage every one in his struggle to live up to his own highest idea, and strive at the same time to make the ideal as near as possible to the Truth.
That man has reached immortality who is disturbed by nothing material.
You have to grow from the inside out. None can teach you, none can make you spiritual. There is no other teacher but your own soul.
The goal of mankind is knowledge. . . . Now this knowledge is inherent in man. No knowledge comes from outside: it is all inside. What we say a man "knows," should, in strict psychological language, be what he "discovers" or "unveils"; what man "learns" is really what he discovers by taking the cover off his own soul, which is a mine of infinite knowledge.
If money help a man to do good to others, it is of some value; but if not, it is simply a mass of evil, and the sooner it is got rid of, the better.
All differences in this world are of degree, and not of kind, because oneness is the secret of everything.
To devote your life to the good of all and to the happiness of all is religion. Whatever you do for your own sake is not religion.
The greatest religion is to be true to your own nature. Have faith in yourselves!
The spirit is the cause of all our thoughts and body-action, and everything, but it is untouched by good or evil, pleasure or pain, heat of cold, and all the dualism of nature, although it lends its light to everything.
It is our own mental attitude which makes the world what it is for us. Our thought make things beautiful, our thoughts make things ugly. The whole world is in our own minds. Learn to see things in the proper light. First, believe in this world -- that there is meaning behind everything. Everything in the world is good, is holy and beautiful. If you see something evil, think that you are not understanding it in the right light. throw the burden on yourselves!
In one word, this ideal is that you are divine.
All the powers in the universe are already ours. It is we who have put our hands before our eyes and cry that it is dark.
If faith in ourselves had been more extensively taught and practiced, I am sure a very large portion of the evils and miseries that we have would have vanished.
Where can we go to find God if we cannot see Him in our own hearts and in every living being.
The Vedanta teaches that Nirvana can be attained here and now, that we do not have to wait for death to reach it. Nirvana is the realization of the Self; and after having once known that, if only for an instant, never again can one be deluded by the mirage of personality.
The Vedanta recognizes no sin it only recognizes error. And the greatest error, says the Vedanta is to say that you are weak, that you are a sinner, a miserable creature, and that you have no power and you cannot do this and that.
“MY nature is love Him. And therefore I love. I do not pray for any-thing. I do not ask for anything. Let Him place me wherever He likes. I must love Him for love’s sake. I can not trade in love.
“To devote your life to the good of all and to the happiness of all is religion. Whatever you do for your own sake is not religion”
“Truth can be stated in a thousand different ways, yet each one can be true.”
“The will is not free - it is a phenomenon bound by cause and effect - but there is something behind the will which is free.”
“As different streams having different sources all mingle their waters in the sea, so different tendencies various though they appear, crooked or straight, all lead to God.”
“When an idea exclusively occupies the mind, it is transformed into an actual physical or mental state.”
“All differences in this world are of degree, and not of kind, because oneness is the secret of everything.”
“Infinite power of the spirit, brought to bear upon matter evolves material development, made to act upon thought evolves intellectuality, and made to act upon itself makes of man a GOd. First, let us be Gods, and then help other to be GOds. "Be and Make." Let this be our motto.”
“Religion is the manifestation of the Divinity already in man”
“If faith in ourselves had been more extensively taught and practiced, I am sure a very large portion of the evils and miseries that we have would have vanished.”
Never think there is anything impossible for the soul. It is the greatest heresy to think so. If there is sin, this is the only sin � to say that you are weak, or others are weak.
::Sayings of Sri Ramakrishna ::
Truth can be A man is truly free, even here in this embodied state, if he knows that God is the true agent and he by himself is powerless to do anything.
It is easy to talk on religion, but difficult to practice it.
Many good sayings are to be found in holy books, but merely reading them will not make one religious. One must practice the virtues taught in such books in order to acquire love of God.
If you first fortify yourself with the true knowledge of the Universal Self, and then live in the midst of wealth and worldliness, surely they will in no way affect you
As a wet-nurse in a wealthy family brings up her master�s child, loving it as if it were her own, yet knowing well that she has no claim upon it, so you also think that you are but trustee and guardians of your children whose real father is the Lord himself.
If you must be mad, be it not for the things of the world. Be mad with the love of God.
Because of the screen of Maya (illusion) that shuts off God from human view, one cannot see Him playing in ones heart.
Many are the names of God and infinite the forms through which He may be approached.
Unless one always speaks the truth, one cannot find God Who is the soul of truth.
One must be very particular about telling the truth. Through truth one can realize God.
If you desire to be pure, have firm faith, and slowly go on with your devotional practices without wasting your energy in useless scriptural discussions and arguments. Your little brain will otherwise be muddled.
Work, apart from devotion or love of God, is helpless and cannot stand alone.
After installing the Deity on the lotus of your heart, you must keep the lamp of remembering God ever burning. While engaged in the affairs of the world, you should constantly turn your gaze inwards and see whether the lamp is burning or not.
To work without attachment is to work without the expectation of reward or fear of any punishment in this world or the next. Work so done is a means to the end, and God is the end.
As long as you are a person with an ego of your own, cannot conceive, think of or perceive God other than as a person.
God is in all men, but all men are not in God; that is why we suffer.
When the divine vision is attained, all appear equal; and there remains no distinction of good and bad, or of high and low.
Good and evil cannot bind him who has realized the oneness of Nature and his own self with Brahman. stated in a thousand different ways, yet each o Vedanta is a philosophy taught by the Vedas, the most ancient scriptures of India. Its basic teaching is that our real nature is divine. God, or Brahman as it is called, exists in every living being.
Religion is therefore a search for self-knowledge, a search for the divine within ourselves. We should not think of ourselves as needing to be "saved." We are never lost. At worst, we are living in ignorance of our true nature.
Vedanta acknowledges that there are many different approaches to God, and all are valid. Any kind of spiritual practice will lead to the same state of self-realization. Thus Vedanta teaches respect for all religions.
I see people who talk about religion constantly quarrelling with one another. Hindus, Mussalmans, Brahmos, Shaktas, Vaishnavas, Shaivas, all quarrel with one another. They haven't the intelligence to understand that He who is called Krishna is also Shiva and the Primal Shakti, and that it is He, again, who is called Jesus and Allah. "There is only one Rama and He has a thousand names.". Truth is one; it is only called by different names. All people are seeking the same Truth; the disagreement is due to differences in climate, temperament, and names. Everyone is going toward God. They will all realise Him if they have sincerity and longing of heart.
One should feel a yearning for God like the yearning of a person who has lost his or her job and is wandering from one office to another in search of work.
But the Reality is one and the same; the difference is only in name. He who is Brahman is verily Atman, and again, He is the Bhagavan. He is Brahman to the followers of the path of knowledge, Paramatman to the yogis, and the Bhagavan to the lovers of God.
Think of Brahman, Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute, as a shoreless ocean. Through the cooling influence, as it were, of the bhakta's love, the water is frozen at places into blocks of ice. In other words, God now and then assumes various forms for His lovers and reveals Himself to them as a Person. But with the rising of the Sun of Knowledge, the blocks of ice melt. Then one doesn't feel any more that God is a Person, nor does one see God's forms. What He is cannot be described. Who will describe Him? He who would do so disappears. He cannot find his I any more.
Brahman and Sahkti are identical, like fire and its power to burn. When we talk of fire we automatically mean also its power to burn. Again, the fire's power to burn implies the fire itself. If you accept the one you must accept the other.
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